In U.S. Pat. No. 3,636,611, issued Jan. 25, 1972, to Irving W. Rosenbaum entitled APPARATUS FOR SPLICING WIRES and assigned to the assignee of the instant invention, there is disclosed apparatus for automatically forming, driving and crimping an electrically conductive splice about a pair of wires which are to be mechanically and electrically connected thereby. As mentioned in the Rosenbaum patent, a significant advantage of the apparatus described therein is the fact the apparatus employs a continuous supply strip and automatically forms, drives and crimps the splice formed therefrom in one continuous operation. This is in contrast to the prior art techniques which preceded the Rosenbaum patent in which a first manufacturing step was employed to produce a string of preformed splices (much like a string of conventional U-shaped staples employed in a desk top stapler), and a separate apparatus had to be employed to drive such preformed splices about the pair of wires to be joined thereby.
Similarly, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,605,261 issued Sept. 20, 1971, to I. Zahn, et al, and assigned to the assignee of the instant invention, there is disclosed apparatus for automatically forming, driving and crimping a ring-type terminal about the end of a wire in one, continuous operation and with the employment of a continuous supply strip.